EA Mythic Media Event Report

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We learn what's happening with Ultima Online, Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online right from the teams

By Richard Aihoshi - 'Jonric'

Based on Games Workshop's popular and influential property Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is a persistent state world we've been tracking closely and with growing interest since it was announced in May of 2005. Among the initial facts revealed at that time was the roster of playable armies, a total of six divided evenly into two groups representing Order and Chaos. The former encompasses the sturdy Dwarves, the aristocratic Elves and the human Empire. Each of these is paired against an ancient enemy, the barbaric Greenskins, the menacing Dark Elves and the mutants of Chaos respectively. The team has rolled out more information about some of these than others, so when a message arrived containing an invitation to attend an EA Mythic media event where the game would be shown, our first thought was that new facts might be forthcoming.

We weren't disappointed. First on the schedule, however, was an introduction to Kingdom Reborn, a free graphical upgrade for the venerable Ultima Online, which will celebrate 10 years of live service later this year. Slated to arrive on users' hard drives sometime this spring, it addresses what may be their most frequent request by implementing a new engine that updates but doesn't break away from the game's basic look and feel. The improved visuals won't be mistaken for next-generation, but when considered in the context of what the players see on their screens now, they may take on a rather different and more favorable light.

According to Producer Aaron Cohen and Lead Designer Nick Corea, the magnitude of this undertaking is very substantial. It seems that every single art asset in the game is being replaced. Taking into account the seven expansions that have been released, the five continents in the world et al, this represents a huge number of items. A couple of other noteworthy changes were mentioned. One is an improved interface designed to be more user friendly with, for example, more convenient hotbars and less need for clicking. The other, referred to as "bright paths", is intended to help make the skill system less daunting by offering guidance.

Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn

Ultima Online current

Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn

Ultima Online current

Also announced was another task the team, which has doubled in size to about 40 people, is working on. Stygian Abyss, the next commercial add-on, is aimed for release this summer. While the specifics provided were fairly limited, we did find out that the noble, stoic Gargoyles will be added as a playable race, and that the opening of the titular chasm will allow humans to reach their homeland. Players will be able to adventure in the title's largest dungeon, and they will also be able to experience new monsters, skills, magic, pets, housing items, quests, pets, etc. Further information will undoubtedly become available over the moths to come.

Next up was a presentation on Dark Age of Camelot. It began with a look at the state of the game, with the main focus being the latest expansion, Labyrinth of the Minotaur. Featuring the addition of the titular creatures as a playable race in all three realms, the product launched in North America and will go live in Europe in February. Also highlighted were a few other things players can look forward to in 2007. Among them were the content in the Catacombs add-on being opened up without charge, a greater focus on optimizing player performance and reducing annoyances within the Realm vs. Realm end game, an overhaul of crafting, and improvements to the user interface. Another area receiving increased attention will be for-pay account services. Some specifics noted were splitting accounts, which is already available, changing the gender of high-level characters, transfers across servers, and additional bank and vault slots.

Glimmer King concept

Rock Dragon concept

Wolf Dragon model

Perhaps most interesting was a new feature called Camelot Campaigns. These are described as in-game story arcs that will last six months, with new content being added every two weeks. The first one is titled A Dragon's Revenge. Further details were somewhat sketchy, but it looks like each of the three realms will have a different dragon. A couple were shown in a live demo; both Hibernia's Wolf Dragon and Albion's Stone Dragon were appropriately large and formidable.

Aside from that, we were told the story arcs will remain available after the six months. Most of the content will be geared to groups with certain parts, such as those involving bosses, being set up as raids. In a nod to the time delay between implementation on the North American and European servers, players on the latter can expect to see some differences in the story, albeit not radical ones. A related question came to mind that I didn't have the opportunity to ask. It concerns EA Mythic's intentions with respect to further expansion packs. It would be easy and quite possibly correct to assume the next one is in the pipeline to launch in the last quarter of this year. However, that would be unsupported conjecture.